A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 107 – Weeds

“Don’t Overthink It, Nobody Wants Those Properties and Money of Yours.”

It is unfortunate that fate really does exist between people; no matter if it’s a blessed one, or one that is bound for doom.
When Jiang Tian and the rest were all in Jiangsu, Ji Huanyu was also in Jiangsu — Du Cheng wanted to return to his old home, he wanted to be the falling leaf that returned to its roots.
Now Jiang Tian and the rest were in Beijing, and Ji Huanyu happened to be in Beijing too, because he didn’t have Du Cheng’s way of thinking — he was an orphan, and the thing called home wasn’t anything of any particular importance to him. He would rather have a better hospital with better conditions, so he would appear more dignified.

Jiang Ou did not inform anyone before coming to the hospital.
She would always remember that horrible night from a long time ago. That day, every single person in a hospital had the tracks of their life shifted onto a different fork, and the journey down took five-six years. The web of relations between these people was a convoluted mess of tree roots; but upon closer inspection, in the true heart of the matter, the source of everything was but rotten business between her, Ji Huanyu and Du Cheng.

In her most broken moment, she was once disoriented by those intersecting relations, and could not stop splitting hairs no matter what she did. Later, she spent two years on medication and healing, and slowly sorted things out with guidance. She finally realised the biggest hurdle she had to cross over was herself.

People are simply like this sometimes: the ones most involved in the situation know the least. When she’s in a good state, she would question herself: such a simple principle, how was she unable to sort these things apart clearly before? When she’s not doing so well, she would then feel that there was no end to these troubles.
Only when she heard that Ji Huanyu was hospitalised, then she truly changed; like she had been drifting amidst the cloudy fog for quite a while, and had suddenly plummeted to the ground.
The doctor advised her to try to go to the source of the problems herself. Therefore, when she received the carer’s call, she decided to come see Ji Huanyu. This time round, there was nobody else around, nobody was getting implicated, she would cross this hurdle herself.

It was just that before she headed upstairs, a brief interlude occurred at the entrance to the hospital. She happened to be alighting the car, tightened up her coat, and was about to head inside when she suddenly caught a glance of a person in a navy blue coat talking on the phone in the near distance. He was facing this direction with his side, and a hand was still on the car door.

Jiang Ou was nearsighted, but her degree wasn’t particularly high, so she didn’t wear her glasses on a daily basis. From this distance, she was only certain that the other person was a tall, thin, pale and immaculate young person with an outstanding air about him. She couldn’t see his features properly. But the moment he turned around, Jiang Ou felt that the way he was holding the phone and talking was calm and aloof; he was a little alike to Jiang Tian, and she even nearly mixed them up.

Fortunately, she reacted in time: Jiang Tian did not have a coat of this colour, and would rarely wear a black scarf this thick. Therefore a laugh escaped from her as she shook her head and went straight inside the hospital.

It’s been such a long while since Jiang Ou saw Ji Huanyu — the last time she saw him, it was even in Du Cheng’s ward.
That day, the person rushed here in the middle of the night, bringing with him the wintry coldness and signs of having just been beaten up by Jiang Tian, so he was the opposite of the way he was usually impeccably dressed; he was a little unkempt. In her mind, that was Ji Huanyu at his most undignified.

Right at the very start, when she heard that Ji Huanyu had fallen ill right, she continued imagining based on the way he was that night — a little thinner, a little paler, a little sloppier. Due to her utter detest for him, she even uglified him to a certain extent.
But by the time she truly saw Ji Huanyu in the hospital ward, she still stopped in her tracks.

If it wasn’t for people informing her in advance, there was absolutely no way she could tell that this was the person whom she had been entangled with for more than a decade.
The “liar” that once had a good appearance wore an entirely non-form fitting scrubs for patients. A nurse supported one arm, and his other hand was holding a steel rod propped up against the ground — it was indeed a walking stick, but just that this word seemed to not fit at all when used in conjunction Ji Huanyu.
He was hunched over as he slogged to the bathroom, a tiny step after another. However, he caught sight of someone at the entrance out of the corner of his eyes, and so he slowly turned his head to look……
And so Jiang Ou saw a pasty white, bloated face.

It is said that the mannerism one walks with would affect their bones and the energy they gave off. After a long time, even their appearance would change. Once upon a time, when Jiang Ou and Ji Huanyu were still on good terms, she would often hear praises from people, saying that her husband was a beautiful elegant man. And now, there was no trace of the past self to be found on this bloated and sluggish man.

Jiang Ou saved up a chest full of things to say, but the moment she saw him, all of them instantly vanished without a trace.
For those very few seconds, she even found herself at loss. She was thinking: who is this pasty and bloated middle-aged man? Why did he subconsciously use his hand to shelter his face the moment he saw her, and then tug at the nurse toduck inside the bathroom in a hurry, causing him to appear even more ridiculous?

Several moments later, she then came back to herself, letting out a soft “oh” in her head. This is Ji Huanyu.
This really is……Ji Huanyu.
She melted down over a person like this, forcibly grabbing onto the only person she could hold on to — Jiang Tian — and then wasting an entire five-six years away in this mundane world.

How ridiculous.

Ji Huanyu stayed inside the bathroom for a long time. Who knew if he was genuinely facing some inconveniences, or he wasn’t mentally prepared to see other people. By the time the nurse helped him outside again, Jiang Ou had already helped him partially close the door to the ward.

Ji Huanyu trundled back to the bedside, a little by little. He used to have such lively eyes; when needed, they could be gentle, they could be passionate. But now, all they do is to stick to the ground, making him appear both weak and apathetic.
The nurse helped him onto the bed, and then adjusted the inclination of the bedrest. She pulled a chair to the bedside, and said to Jiang Ou, “Please take a seat, ma’am.”
“No need,” Jiang Ou said, “I’m just here for a short visit, standing is fine.”

The nurse initially wanted to stay by the side, but Ji Huanyu waved his hand, and slurred, “Go outside.”
“Then……” the nurse hesitated, then left, happy to have some free time. There were only two people left inside the ward.

Jiang Ou said, “Did you invite me here to see how terribly you’re doing, Ji Huanyu?”
The other person still refused to look at her, sitting at the head of the bed with his head hung low. Despite the difficulty he faced upon walking just now, he did appear alive to a certain degree. Now that he’s back on the bed, the lifeless numbness enveloped him once more. Much later, he then blinked his eyes, saying ambiguously, “Xiao-Ou, hey, I’m sorry.”

More than a decade ago, when Jiang Ou heard him say that, she always felt a little wronged. Five-six years ago, when she heard him say that in the hospital, she was so enraged she turned hysterical.
Now that she heard him say that once more, she ought to jeer at it, and feel like it would be beneath her to care. But at this moment, she felt more serene than anything else.

A foreign Ji Huanyu dragged her out from the shadows of the past, turning her into a mere bystander. She stood by the side of the bed, bag in hand, watching a patient she was in no way familiar with at all saying things that completely did not affect her.
In that instant, she suddenly understood why the doctor advised her to come see this person.

Only when she truly meets him will she truly understand: time changes people, changes things. The person she once liked, was once exhausted by, was once hated, had long since ceased to exist. It had been a silhouette in her memories that had been torturing her all these years.
“Are you still that disgusted by me?” Ji Huanyu said.
Jiang Ou looked at this unfamiliar middle-aged man, and suddenly felt a little like laughing — which she did in her heart anyway, and then her feelings turned complicated.
She brushed back a strand of hair that had fallen to the side of her ear, and took a deep breath, saying, “Whatever.”
It would honestly be a little too ridiculous to use the word “hate” on a person in this state.

Ji Huanyu’s eyes shifted up, his movements still slow; regardless, he caught the emotions in her gaze.

He schemed competitively for decades, all for some dignity. No matter if it was liking or hatred, as long as he wasn’t being looked down on, he could accept all of them with ease. At one point, he felt that literally anyone in the world could show him the face of contempt because of certain things, anyone in the world but Jiang Ou — because she would simply refuse to see him for the rest of forever, or hate him.

He had never expected that in the end, he saw what he wanted to see the least in the eyes of the person he least expected to.
Maybe……this was the greatest form of retribution he had coming to him.

He would rather Jiang Ou go hysterical the way she was a few years ago, her eyes red in the same way — yelling at him — hitting him — venting her suppressed anger and woes. However, all Jiang Ou did was to dig her phone out and check the time, then saying to him, “I don’t know what I want to say either. I don’t feel like saying what I initially had in mind, so that’s all, I suppose. Just take it that I came here for a quick visit after the phone call, and will be leaving soon. You……”

Jiang Ou was at a loss for words for a moment. “Try to recuperate, and do some physiotherapy.”
Ji Huanyu revealed a self-mocking grin with much difficulty; when that kind of expression appeared on the current face he had as of today, it looked more like a spasm of his muscles. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.
Jiang Ou cut him off there and then. “Don’t overthink it, nobody wants those properties and money of yours.”

This line was funnily no different from what Jiang Tian said. Ji Huanyu gradually lowered his head, and stared at an empty spot in thin air. He no longer moved. He spent his whole life disregarding any honour, all for his personal gains. Consequently, in the end, when he finally had a rare show of conscience and wanted to give out what he had in hand, nobody wanted it anymore.

Jiang Ou took one last look at him, pushed the door to the ward open, and left the ward.
This ward was at the end of the corridor, next to it was a wide glass window. The sunlight of deep winter shone in, but it carried no warmth at all. The deathly white was a little piercing to the eyes.

She walked a few steps further away, and sat down on a long empty bench. She appeared all tranquil when she said what she said in the hospital ward, but the moment she sat down, she still couldn’t help but zone out. The same way students who toiled away for their studies for more than a decade would always end up sinking into a space of emptiness after gaokao is over.

She couldn’t quite name the feeling, and neither could she really describe it as a sense of loss, or finally having a weight lifted off her shoulders. Only when someone sat down next to her and presented a cup of water before her, then she was startled.
“Xiao-Tian?” Jiang Ou received the water, and looked at the person beside her in a daze.
For a moment, she suddenly felt a bizarre sense of unfamiliarity. Perhaps it had been too long since she sat with Jiang Tian together in peace. It was as though she had a boring, dreary dream that just dragged on and on, and was suddenly startled awake. That tall and thin son who would always purse his lips tightly and look aside had already become an adult.

“Why are you here?” Jiang Ou asked in a daze, “When did you arrive?”
“Quite a while already,” Jiang Tian said.

The moment he received the news that Jiang Ou came to Beijing, he immediately went to the hospital. He practically arrived a second apart. What was different however was that he was delayed a few minutes downstairs — he saw Sheng Wang.

Jiang Tian did not intend for Sheng Wang to come here, so when he called him, he only said he had something on, and would be back later. However, the other person hit the nail right on the head with a guess. Still, he did not want to let Sheng Wang come face this rotten mess left by the past, so with some kissing and coaxing, he got the other person to wait for him in the car.

When he rushed to the ward, Jiang Ou just happened to finish leaving the door partially closed. He did not want to actually see Ji Huanyu, so he leaned against the door outside, and overheard the two’s conversation in its entirety.

TO BE CONTINUED.